Intermodal facilities proposed for an area southeast of Russellville have been delayed by about two years because regulators are requiring an extensive environmental study.

Officials have already conducted a preliminary study of the site, determining that such development would pose no threat. Indeed, the area in question isn't unique in any way. Its usefulness would be greatly enhanced by the very projects that had been slated to begin soon.

However, a lawsuit filed by the City of Dardanelle and others south of the Arkansas River stopped the project for the time being, delaying the project and driving up its cost.

Lawsuits have a way of doing that. Want to stop a project? File a lawsuit. Merits of the case notwithstanding, of course.

This is not the first time Dardanelle officials have gotten their knickers in a twist over something planned by folks on the north side of the river. In the past five years, folks in Yell County have blocked, with varying degrees of success, proposals involving Russellville's water utility, a new regional airport and now intermodal facilities, including a slackwater harbor.

The question is why? Why does progress in Pope County irritate folks in Yell County?

There has been no good answer forthcoming.

Concerning a project to locate a wastewater line to the river from City Corp.'s treatment plant, Dardanelle balked at the location, suggested a new location and then balked at that site. Gridlock resulted in City Corp. (read the ratepayers in Russellville) losing a federal grant of more than $2 million.

The airport plan met with Dardanelle ire because the planes would have flown over the town. We rather doubt that a regional airport outside of Russellville would have generated the traffic of Los Angeles International, but it's a moot point now.

And a slackwater harbor, downstream from Dardanelle, wouldn't seem to impact the town in any way. So, the basis for the lawsuit seems unclear.

Except ...

Just about any time someone on this side of the river comes up with an idea to boost the economy in an unusual way, aginners seem to come out of the woodwork. There's one thing about that we don't understand. Projects -- like a new airport or industrial facilities -- on the north side of the river have benefits that extend beyond the borders of Pope County. What helps the economy of Russellville helps the economy throughout Pope County and into Yell County and Johnson County and further.

Conversely, what stymies the economy of Russellville does so to the entire region.